A Bit Like You And Me Radio

June 27, 2013

The Idle Race - Sitting In My Tree (1968)

Dave Pritchard, Greg Masters, and Roger Spencer had been playing together in Birmingham, England since 1959. In the coming years, their band’s name and lead singer changed frequently until, in 1964, they were led by Mike Sheridan and Roy Wood, going by the name Mike Sheridan and The Nightriders. When Wood amicably left in December 1965 to join The Move, Mike Sheridan soon parted ways, as well. In May 1966, the band picked up a young Jeff Lynne and changed their name to The Idyll Race. For simplicity’s sake, they soon changed to the spelling now seen above. Roy Wood, who had gone on to become a famous musician with his new band The Move, arranged to have his old bandmates set up with Liberty Records.

Despite being well received by critics and radio DJs, a combination of bad luck and poor promotion had left the band without a hit. In February 1969, Roy Wood extended an invitation to Jeff Lynne, asking him to join The Move. Lynne declined, not wanting to give up on his current band’s star potential just yet. That same year, Lynne’s band released their second album, Idle Race (this album produced by Lynne himself), and two singles written by him, “Days of Broken Arrows” and “Come With Me.” When all of the releases failed to reach commercial success, Lynne knew the band wouldn’t go anywhere. In January 1970, Lynne parted ways with The Idle Race to join Roy Wood’s The Move, under the condition that The Move would eventually be retired in favor of their new joint venture, a band that would later be known as ELO.

With Lynne gone, Pritchard, Masters, and Spencer hired the talents of Mike Hopkins and Dave Walker to replace him. Together, they would release their third and final album, Time Is, in 1971. That album, along with their last single, failed to chart. Pritchard and Spencer parted ways and Steve Gibbons joined the still-incomplete group. When Masters and Hopkins also quit in 1972, what was left rapidly evolved around Gibbons into the Steve Gibbons Band.

This song comes from the band’s first album, The Birthday Party, released in 1968. It was written by Jeff Lynne and features the band's most recognizable lineup: Lynne, Pritchard, Masters, and Spencer. After the rise of Jeff Lynne and his success in ELO, The Birthday Party was re-released in 1976. Neither release of the album saw any action on the charts.

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The radio is infamous for playing the same dozen chart-topping hits day after day. There is a plethora of great music from the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s that never gets any air time. The purpose of A Bit Like You And Me is to share old, forgotten '60s music (as well as other old music) with all listeners, proving that there's more music from the past than the media would have you believe. Whether looking for new music or rediscovering forgotten music, A Bit Like You And Me is a great place to hear old songs.

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